One name says a lot: Alejandro Escovedo. Escovedo will set up at the Vermilionville Performance Center at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

With Escovedo, you get a musician who has spent a lifetime traversing the bridge between words and melody and genres – and it’s all based on a life lived, not witnessed – and it all comes down to just not only working hard, but doing good work, too.

Visit vermilionville.org for details.

Thursday through Sunday

Whether or not you want to run away with it is up to you, but do make note that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey "Super Circus Heroes" is in town through Sunday at the Cajundome.

The Big Top may be missing, but the Greatest Show on Earth remains intact with lions, tigers, elephants, horses, camels and clowns, of course. Oh, yeah, there’s dogs, too.

Animal trainer Cathy Carden is spotlighted and has three acts in her repertoire. One act has three Asian elephants doing interesting things. There’s a mixed animal act that has a pair of camels, two Shetland ponies and two Arabian horses.

The circus also presents a new dog and horse show with terriers, poodles, mixed breeds and miniature horses.

Showtimes are 7 p.m. today and Friday; 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at cajundome.com.

Saturday

Come out for a celebration of local writers with Barnes & Noble’s Local Author Expo at 2 p.m. Sunday at the bookstore, 5705 Johnston St.. Support your favorite local author and/or discover new books by people in the community.

Celebrating its 20th summer season of providing great symphonic music to Lafayette audiences, the Acadian Wind Symphony presents “Louisiana Connections,” a free concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Lafayette High School auditorium on Congress Street.

“Louisiana Connections” features music written by local composers or music written about Louisiana, including homegrown trumpet soloist Graham Breedlove, who will perform his own composition “French Quarter Fantasy.”

University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Composer in Residence, Dr. Quincy Hilliard’s epic composition “Ghost Dance,” is also on the program. The work was inspired by the powerfully moving events of the massacre of nearly four hundred men, women and children of the Lakota Sioux Nation at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Morgan Smith, a student of Hilliard, Smith composed “A Life Well Played,” a poignant piece dedicated to all who have made abiding friendships through music.

A hallmark of the Wind Symphony programming over the years is a the a wide variety of musical styles – from classic symphonic music to zydeco and Dixieland to the grand finale with the State Song – there should be something for everyone. For more information about the Acadian Winds or this free concert, call 337-989-1279.

Thursday

It’s a double-bill of funk and more as Electric Attitude, the Texas band that won the Houston Press Music Award for “Best Soul/Funk/R&B” three years running, and locals Brass Mimosa, hook up this evening at the Blue Moon.

EA isn’t one to be musically stereotyped as the band draws on diverse influences including rock, blues, funk, soul, and disco, and fuse them into a new and exciting sonic mix.

Likewise, Brass Mimosa inhales rock, experimental, classical, and progressive music and it exhales “A swirling primordial soup of multi-genre deliciousness.” How can you pass that up?

You can’t. Show begins at 9 p.m. Be there.

Friday

It’s Grammy winner night Friday at Artmosphere with Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band puttin’ on the Ritz. As the saying goes, “Aint’ no party like a Chubby party!”

Chubby stands solidly on his zydeco foundation and then builds on it with a concoction of blues, 70’s funk, rock and roll Find out more at the Artmosphere on Facebook.

Saturday

Metal and punk aficionados will have a couple of venues and three bands to choose from and take in come Saturday with Catharsis and Dead Earth Politics, a double-bill of metal bound for The Wild Salmon; and then there’s Lake Charles’ Certain Satellites with A Modern Myth at the Feed & Seed.

Dead Earth Politics has been compared to the likes of Lamb of God, Iron Maiden, Pantera and other legends. DEP received Austin Chronicle's "Best Metal Band of 2012" award.

In the meantime, drawing inspiration from funk, shoegaze and new wave/synth-punk, Certain Satellites with A Modern Myth bring their avant post-funkcore sound to Lafayette from Lake Charles for an energetic and entertaining evening.

Ongoing

A comedy with music and dance on the surface, “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” also addresses the serious issues of ageism and intolerance and you can see it at Theatre 810 this weekend and next.

An international hit and one of the most produced plays in the world, the local show stars Mary Gail Lamonte DeVillier and Milton G. Resweber and is directed by Jody Lamonte Powell.

An antagonistic relationship grows into an intimate friendship as these two people from very different backgrounds reveal their secrets, fears, and joys while dancing the Swing, Tango, Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, and Contemporary Dance.